2003 World Championships

Men

by Maggie Doyle

Russia's Evgeni Plushenko began his short program to "Adagio by T. Albinoni with a quad toe loop-triple toe that he made look effortless. He successfully fought for the landing of his triple Axel. "There was nothing wrong with my triple Axel. I didn't touch down so it was technically clean, only the execution wasn't too good," he explained. Plushenko continued," The battle will continue the day after tomorrow, and so far everything is going according to plan. Plushenko teased the media by mentioning a possible surprise in the freeskate if he feels good but declined to elaborate. He also may have an injection in his left knee that apparently has an overuse injury from too many quads in practice on Saturday. Plushenko took eight of the nine judges' ordinals here for first place. He will be the second to last skater in the freeskate followed only by Chengiang Li of China. His footwork is improved but that is still the only area where he is still not at Alexei Yagudin's level. 2002 Olympic and World Champion Yagudin is not competing here this season but will be in attendance later this week.

Timothy Goebel of the USA performed this "Romeo and Juliet" program for the second time this season. His achievement of a clean program is more impressive in light of the fact he was suffering from an apparent flu bug. "I woke up with a touch of flu or something. I had stomach problems all day. It may have helped because I was lighter that I was in practice but I almost threw up on (ABC Commentator) Peter Caruthers. Goebel will be the third of the final six for the freeskating phase. Goebel added, "I have only skated this program twice this season but this was the best performance. I plan to keep this program next year, too." He included a quad Salchow-triple toe combination, a triple Axel and a triple flip. He had marks ranging from 5.7 - 5.8 for technical merit and from 5.6 to 5.8 for presentation, taking one first place ordinal from Plushenko.

Takeshi Honda of Japan skated his short program to "Leyenda." This program lacks some of the artistic flourishes of past programs but he produced on his needed jumps, landing a quad toe-triple toe combination followed by his triple Axel. He also included a triple Lutz and it is obvious that the efforts spent working on footwork with Nicholai Morozov and Kurt Browning was well spent. Browning also choreographed this program. Honda skates first in the final group for the freeskate. "Before the competition I had a hard time wearing my skating boots because my left foot was swelling, so my quad jump was not perfect," he said. He plans three quads for his freeskate. "I am not going to hold back. I will do my best. I want to do my own gold medal performance for the audience," he added.

Michael Weiss will need some help to win since he currently sits in fourth place after his rock medley short program that uses songs from Van Halen and Metallica. He landed a quad toe-triple toe combination and a nice triple Axel. He then fell on the triple Lutz jump. "The fall on the triple Lutz was a dumb, silly mistake. The triple Lutz is very easy for me. I am still pumped for the freeskate," he said. Weiss skates fourth out of six men in the final group.

China's Li fifth skated to Kung Fu music, holding on to his quad toe- triple toe combination, followed by a triple Axel and then a triple loop, completing all his jumps by the 1:03 minute mark. He lost ground on his artistic marks to finish fourth in the short program and fifth overall. "I place a high vale on this competition so when my performance was very good, I was very excited at the end of the program. I have a lot of confidence for my free program, too," he said.

Sergei Davydov of Belarus is sixth overall and performed to the music, "Judith" with style and pinache. He floats on his jump landings, completing a triple Axel-triple toe combination, a triple Lutz and a big double Axel.

Ryan Jahnke sits in seventh place, just missing the final group of skaters. He missed his triple Axel, taking a hard fall but his other elements were all first-rate in his "La Strada" short program.

Switzerland's Stephane Lambiel apparently surcumbed to the pressure as he fell on his quad toe loop and his triple Lutz. The judges dropped him to sixteenth in the short from third place in the qualifying rounds so he now is 13th. France's Brian Joubert redeemed himself somewhat in this short program, landing his quad toe-triple toe and his triple flip but and losing the triple Axel landing.

The freeskating final takes place on Thursday, March 27 at 7 PM at the MCI center. It is impressive that at this stage of the game, all three American skaters are in the top seven in a field of thirty skaters. For the freeskate, twenty-four men advance and that event is worth 50% of the total score.

The 2002 World Championships medalists in Nagano, Japan all repeated here in Washington DC for these 2003 World Championships with the exact same medals. "Winning (silver medal) this year means a thousand times more than winning last year. I think repeating any medal always means more because it is a lot easier to storm the castle than defend it," said Timothy Goebel. Plushenko added, " It nice to win a second time and now a lot of press wants to talk to me."

Russia's Evgeni Plushenko took all nine judge's first place ordinals that counted from the fourteen judges on the strength of his artistic marks. His scores ranged from 5.6 through 5.9 for technical merit but he had straight 5.9's from all fourteen judges for his presentation mark. He opened with a quad toeloop followed by a slightly shaky triple toe and then turned out on his triple loop for his three-jump combination. His second combination was a triple Axel-half loop-triple Flip. "First, I am tired. When I woke up this morning my knee was red, same pain but red. I skated normal, not my best but normal. I made a few mistakes, for example two-footing the quad. But finally I did a good job, " said Plushenko. He added further, "When I came off the ice before I saw my marks, I thought I skated clean and I won." He performed his St. Petersburg 300 year anniversary program that utilized the music from the "Criminal in St. Petersburg" soundtrack for this round. His planned surprise of including one of his new quads will wait until next season as he still had left knee pain here. "Next season I will jump a quad Lutz and maybe another quad if I feel healthy. I didn't need an injection. We used a special cream, massage and physical therapy." His program included the two-footed quad and seven triples but he won on the strength of his presentation marks.

Goebel of the USA was really on tonight especially with his jumps, coming back strongly since his January disaster in Dallas. Landing two quads and seven clean triples. He opted during his program to make his second quad Salshow a triple. He again skated to "An American in Paris", earning technical merit marks that ranged from 5.7 to 5.9 and presentation marks from 5.7 to 5.8. Goebel explained, "I made the decision during the program. I hadn't made any mistakes and it wouldn't gain me anything as I had already skated a solid program with two quads and two triple Axels. Maybe if it was the Olympic Games I would have taken that chance on another quad Salchow but here it was not necessary."

Goebel added further, "I am thrilled with how I skated tonight and I couldn't have skated any better. This is the way I have been training." Goebel was pleased with his artistic marks. "I think this competition proves that I am not just a first mark skater any more. In all three performances I had artistic marks that were parallel with my technical marks. That is really a huge step for me. I've really worked hard on that with Lori Nichol, Frank Carroll and my new choreographer," he said.

Takeshi Honda again won the bronze medal, skating his "Riverdance" freeskating program. "I am a little upset about the first quad and I totally forgot about the combination for the second quad (toe). I didn't realize it until after the program. I am happy I got the bronze again. I could do a better skate but I am happy," he said. He stepped out of his first quad toe, landed a triple Salchow, followed by a triple Axel- triple toe before executing a second quad toe cleanly. He had two more clean triples but then stumbled out of his triple Lutz. His marks ranged from 5.4 to 5.6 for technical merit and 5.4 to 5.8 for presentation.

Chengjiang Li placed fourth with his Star Wars program and this is the highest finish in the men's event for China at a world championship. "I am very happy and so excited. The audience was very good. I completed the first three most difficult elements and maybe I was too excited so I missed (singled) the triple Lutz. I believe I have more potential and could have done better," said Li. He also stated he wants to improve his posture and other details for next season. He landed a quad toe-triple toe combination, a quad Salchow and a triple Axel- triple toe combination and three other triples. He replaced the second triple Axel with a triple loop to replace one he'd missed. He still needs work on his spins.

Michael Weiss of the USA finished a disappointing fifth with his "Malaguena" program. His opening quad turned into a triple toe and then he stepped out of his quad toe in combination. He bent at the waist but held the landing of his triple Axel but left off the planned triple toeloop. He then doubled his later triple Axel but landed four other triples. It was not the performance he was looking for and he had to settle for fifth place. "It was tough. I felt so good. I don't know what happened. Sometimes the quad is there and sometimes it isn't," he said. Weiss also indicated he plans to return next season

Brian Joubert pulled up to sixth place in the freeskating and overall but did two solo quad toes in his program. " The season is over; now it's vacation. I felt well throughout my performance. I felt stress at the beginning but after I landed the first quad toe it was okay. I did two quad toes without a combination, as usual, but that doesn't matter," he said. He did take a deduction for it."